Jewish Musings, Tuesday, April 9

[louise]

What’s on your mind — how to make kugel? This week’s Torah reading? Life goals? Prayer? We are all engaged in weight loss/weight maintenance journeys and we are all Jewish or at least interested in Judaism. We like to eat, we like to discuss. It is our goal here to provide each other support on our journeys, to share experiences, to call on our rich cultural heritage and texts, and to help each other grow spiritually.

Some of us take weekly turns starting the thread:
Frieda (hopefully)?
Holly
Lee
Louise
Lynne
Peachy

And for those of you that stop by to read this thread without posting — you are welcome to, but you are also welcome to chime in. Don’t be shy!

[louise]

I wanted to share some thought from my rabbi in our shabbat announcements about hunger and the affikomen.
He opened with:

“Open for me the gates of righteousness.” (Psalm 118): In the World to Come, a person is asked 'what was your occupation?' When one replies 'I fed the hungry,' they respond: 'this is the gate of those who feed the hungry; enter into it'. (Midrash to the Book of Psalms 118)

“Among the vanishingly few matters of general consensus in the world concerning the Hamas-Israel war is that the World Central Kitchen is a truly heroic organization. With a mission to bring food to troubled spots in the world, it is a rare organization that sees the humanity of all people who are endangered, displaced, traumatized or otherwise affected by this terrible conflict…Within hours of this tragedy, one of my colleagues set up a fundraising page for “Rabbis for World Central Kitchen” and it had raised over $20,000 within the first day. That campaign now has over $50,000 raised this week, mostly from rabbis all across the Jewish spectrum, from the US, Israel, and around the world, as a reflection of the deep grief and concern prompted by this tragedy. (You can donate even if you’re not a rabbi.)

“Towards the beginning of the Passover seder is a tragic reenactment of the experience of poverty and hunger: we take a meager piece of matzah, divide it in half, and hide part of it, as we might imagine someone who is food-insecure would do to make sure they will save some food for later.”

I have thought about the humbleness of the afikomen – the bread of affliction – and the importance it takes on as it is needed to end the seder but I had never thought about the habbit of food-insecure people putting aside something for later (because there may not be any more later) and of likening this to our hiding a piece of the afikomen to have later! He went on to remind us “the approaching Passover holiday is an opportunity to reaffirm our empathy with all who need food, and our prayers for safety and security for all, including those who devote themselves to the needs of the hungry.”

[hollygail]

I'm borrowing the concept of food-insecurity and putting away food for later with the afikomen part of the seder.. Thank you so much, Louise! (Did I report that I'm leading two sedarim this year? for two different groups of people? I want to use the food insecurity concept with the first group.)

I had never considered the food insecurity concept before either. I'm really grateful to learn about it.

Louise, more please...

[peachymom1]

I grew up with plenty of food insecurity and am very familiar with the idea of hiding food and/or saving even a small amount for later. Even so, I never thought of hiding the afikomen in that light - thank you for that teaching, Louise! I made sure my kids never had to go hungry (except when fasting on Yom Kippur when they got old enough), no matter how humbling it was to ask for help or food, and no matter how hard it was for us to do without something else in order to feed the family. When giving tzedakah, giving food is always our first commitment, and my kids know it. I hate that anyone, anywhere, ever has to go without food.

Speaking of food, I haven't had breakfast yet, and I hear some scrambled eggs calling my name!

[gazelle18]

I had not thought about the hiding of part of the afikomen in this way before. This puts a whole new meaning on this aspect of seder, and I really appreciate the insight.

I just got an appeal for the fundraiser Louise’s rabbi mentions, and I plan to contribute.